Orin Kerr writes:
Back in March, I had a long post titled “A remarkable new opinion on search warrants for online accounts — and why I think it’s wrong.” My post addressed an opinion by Magistrate Judge John Facciola that had rejected the common practice of executing e-mail warrants in two steps. Under the two-step process, the provider gives the government the entire contents of the account. Next, investigators search through the account for the specific evidence sought by the warrant. Facciola ruled that this procedure was “repugnant to the Fourth Amendment.” According to Facciola, the better approach — and perhaps the constitutionally mandated approach — is to have the service provider execute the warrant for the government and then send on the responsive files to investigators.
On Friday, Chief Judge Roberts reversed Magistrate Judge Facciola.
Read more on WaPo The Volokh Conspiracy.